Tour of Watopia Cycling 2022 FAQ

Events
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What is the Tour of Watopia?
The Tour of Watopia is a multi-stage journey on Zwift. All 5 stages will earn you double XP, shorthand for Experience Points. Collect enough XP and you’ll level up in the game. With new levels, come new in-game routes, products, and/or clothes. Additionally, all PowerUps you receive will last twice as long! Longer duration PowerUps give you an extra boost whether you’re in a pack or wanting to set a new PR on a segment, like a climb or sprint.

Register to ride Tour of Watopia

When does Tour of Watopia start and finish?
Stage 1 starts on March 9, and each stage will last 4 days.
The final stage, Stage 5, wraps up on March 28th. In addition, there will be six days of make-up events from March 29 - April 3.

Stage 1: March 9 - 12
Stage 2: March 13 - 16
Stage 3: March 17 - 20
Stage 4: March 21 - 24
Stage 5: March 25 - 28
Make-Up: March 29 - April 3

What if I miss a stage?
Make-up stages will be available between March 29th and April 3rd, after Stage 5 finishes. During those six days, we’ll host events to cover all 5 stages. Events will be offered on a rotating schedule every hour, but slots are limited, so make sure to check the schedule of events to complete any remaining stages.

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Do I only get double XP in one event per stage or do I get it in every Tour of Watopia event I join?

When you join any Tour of Watopia event, you will receive double XP! That means if you decide to ride your favorite stage more than once, you’ll get double XP for every event you join. You can schedule your rides at zwift.com/tour-of-watopia/ride or in the Zwift Companion app.

What do I get for completing all stages?
You’ll get three stylish in-game unlocks for completing the 2022 Tour of Watopia. You will unlock the cap after one event, off-road shoes after 3 events, and the 2022 kit after completing all 5 events.

Will there be races during the Tour?
No, but you are welcome to ride as fast as you like. These are group events and event results won’t be displayed at the end.

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I’d like to run and ride all of the Tour of Watopia. Is that something I can do?
We’re impressed by your courage! Well, good news: You can both ride and run the Tour. Your efforts in both will net you SIX unlocks for your achievements, based on completion of all 5 stages in both Ride and Run.

Are there Women’s Only group rides?
Absolutely. All Category D group rides will be women only.

What’s the difference between the ride categories?
Each stage will offer three different routes for you to explore—ride one or ride them all!

Category A will be the longest ride, requiring the most amount of time.
Category C will require the shortest amount of time to complete.
Category B, the Standard Ride, will lie somewhere in between Category A and C in terms of duration. Category D is the women-only category and will follow the same route as Category B.

You will see these categories listed as:

  • Category A: Longer Ride
  • Category B: Standard Ride
  • Category C: Shorter Ride
  • Category D: Standard Ride (Women Only)

Can I free ride the distance without joining a group event?
No. You must join the group event to complete each stage. We’re offering multiple events per day to help fit into everyone’s schedules.

Can I complete all of the stages whenever I want?
No. The Tour follows a specific order. To complete the Tour, participants must finish them in order or during the designated make-up days.

How does Double XP work and why is it important?
Every mile or kilometer you finish during Tour of Watopia rewards you with double the usual experience points (XP). The more experience points you have the faster you can reach new levels and score new unlocks (outfits, bikes and wheels)!

What are Double PowerUps?
2x PowerUps will double the duration of your PowerUp. For example, the Feather PowerUp will help you climb for twice as long as it normally would by reducing your weight by 10% for 30 seconds (as opposed to the conventional 15 seconds). Similarly, the Aero PowerUp will reduce your wind resistance for double the time, meaning you’ll be faster for longer!

What is a “Rebel Route”?
A rebel route is a route that the community created, but is not in game. Four of this year’s Tour of Watopia cycling routes and two running routes are former “Rebel Routes” that are now in-game with badges.

Other than kits, what benefit does Tour of Watopia present for level 50 riders or level 20 runners?

This year, Tour of Watopia will include 5 new cycling routes and 3 new running routes with badges first offered in the Tour. One of these routes will be event-only so this is your chance to get a badge only offered during the Tour of Watopia.

How can I withdraw from the Tour of Watopia?
Want to bow out? No problem, to withdraw from Tour of Watopia, select the link to unenroll from Tour of Watopia Ride.

You can also rejoin the fun at any time!*

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I just tried to register for the upcoming Tour of Watopia 2022 and received an error message indicating that my Profile is not eligible for registration. Anyone else having this issue?

Thanks

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Registration for the Tour of Watopia does not open until 22nd February. Until then you will get this cryptic message which seems to happen every single time there is a tour.

Zwift, please write some more intelligent error messages.

I’m sure this won’t be the last time this question will be asked.

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Yup, 100%.

Seriously, how many ressources are required to change that 15-word pop-up message to read something like ‘Registrations are not open yet. We look forward to seeing you back here on (day, date) to sign up’?

And in what situation is someone’s profile “not eligible” for the Tour of Watopia, Tour de Zwift, Zwift Academy, etc., anyway? This must be a hangover from some oddity of the past. How about some basic housekeeping, Zwift?

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Yeah, seen and sharing.

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It’s February 22nd now and I’m getting the same message….Is there a time of day that registration opens?

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If it’s like previous major happenings on the Zwift calendar, it feels like it’s either automatically triggered later in the day in Zwift HQ’s time zone (PST/PDT), which is far behind much of the rest of the world, or someone actually has to toggle the thing on/off manually… and it doesn’t always get taken care of as early as planned.

We’ll see a pinned announcement thread appear in the Forums with a series of FAQ probably in the next eight hours.

In any case, registration doesn’t really mean much at this stage, as far as I can tell. The events only start on 9 March and, currently, all of the useful information about the stages is already available on the https://www.zwift.com/tour-of-watopia/ page, apart from when rides will take place, which is usually every hour on the hour for the duration of each stage.

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Hey all!

I had understood that registration for the 2022 Tour de Watopia (“TdW”) opens later today. (22 February 2022) Being my first tour, I had a tonne of questions.

I notice the bit about “double XP” (for every kilometer/mile completed). Do double XP bonuses apply only to kilometers ridden, or route completion bonuses too? I still have a bunch of Watopia routes to complete - I’d likely hold off on doing these until the tour if I can scoop double XP for those.

Any tips or suggestions from past TdW participants?

Happy to see there are five new route badges for what appear to have been rebel routes previously.

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From past experience, double XP is only applied to the stage route distance, but they can be done as many times as one wants — or is able.

I don’t recall route completion badges doubling, but you still get those additional XP for completion, which are already double XP.

It’s a great opportunity for levelling up faster in Zwift, in any case.

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Thanks Roule!

I see some of the stages have fast, flat route options that would indeed make great repeat ride opportunities. I’ll be all over those.

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Yup! It’s a pity that stages only run for four days each (plus catch-up week), but they usually take place very often indeed. Last year’s was my first Tour of Watopia and I didn’t realize that it was the only double XP event in the annual calendar.
All will be revealed soon enough when Shuji (probably) posts the official announcement here later today.

Last year, I remember there being a big hullabaloo (or storm in a teacup) because the women’s only category featured some rides, including AdZ, that didn’t occur in the others. Not a big deal really, in my opinion, but that no longer seems to be the case. No one can say that Zwift doesn’t ever learn and improve!

And, unless I’m mistaken, this is the first time that there will be double powerups. Not as big a deal as double XP by a long chalk, but it’s always nice to have something new, and enjoying those advantages for longer can’t hurt.

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Does “double powerups” apply to XP too (instead of +10 or +250 we’d get +20 or +500)? And can we use TT bikes?

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@CouchTo1200K
I merged your thread into the FAQ post. See above for the answer to your question.

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It’s interesting that off-road shoes are being added as unlocks. Good to have some variety.
On the same theme, as gravel bikes are taking off in Zwift and becoming technically advantageous on some routes (which will attract people to riding them in game more), I wonder if the designers are planning on including baggier shorts and also MTB-style helmets, to allow people to clothe their avatars appropriately for the style of bike they’re using.

A shout-out to the person who assigned the routes, spreading the five new badge-winning rides across all the stages. Something for everyone.

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Should that be the cap, or is it those plain white socks? :wink:

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Getting off topic, but they need some real MTB routes other than Repack Ridge to justify additional MTB gear, IMO. Now that the gravel bikes have proper wheelsets and are faster than MTBs on gravel routes, the MTBs are pointless in game… Again, my opinion.

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Hey double XP…hey level 50… Nothing for you here!

Serious question… When are we getting more levels?

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Any chance of a proper race/TT category for each stage of TOW?

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NOPE!!!

Another missed opportunity… tours are so much more fun with rankings turned on… :yawning_face: